As expected the battle turned out to be a hard one. The fortification works team had built a line of Dragon’s teeth all the way from the north to the south, complete with strands of barbed wire in the forest areas. This turned out to be a smart move, since this effectively stopped the German’ tanks from advancing any further and bought the Soviet’ taskforce valuable time needed to regroup forces when needed and fight back.
At first German tanks appeared in the middle together with trucks and halftracks carrying infantry. Some of the tanks and halftracks got knocked out by the AT guns and tanks, while the heavy machineguns also managed to destroy a couple of trucks with their heavy fire support. At the same time, to the south, a few infantry groups had advanced along the road to spot any enemies approaching. They managed to destroy a few tanks in close combat, but after that it didn’t take the attackers long to wipe out these brave groups down to the last man.
To the north things were under control but started to get worse when all of the sudden a couple of Tiger II tanks were seen. The Panther G and PzKpfw IV tanks could be dealt with pretty easily by the IS-II tanks, but these heavy tanks were much tougher. Soon a few IS-II were destroyed, along with a ISU-122, and the rest reversed into cover. The brave AT gun, situated just along the line of Dragon’s teeth, managed to destroy four enemy vehicles before being destroyed.
Things were under control thanks to the brave infantry and the artillery fire support, which managed to disperse a large gathering of tanks to the north and kept the rest under pinned down. And things stayed this way until a small breach in the line of Dragon’s teeth to the south allowed some German’ tanks to slip through. But thankfully these could be destroyed rather easy thanks to the rugged infantry groups and some IS-II tanks.
Thus the Soviet’ taskforce managed to hold their lines and protected the flags from the German’ taskforces grasp.
Losses:
The Soviet taskforce lost a total of 11 tanks, 1 AT gun and 418 men, the great majority infantry, and the German taskforce a total of 131 tanks, 7 halftracks, 7 trucks, 1 artillery and about 1.000 men in total. Of the 131 German’ tanks lost, 16 were abandoned by their crews and could be captured by Soviet’ forces.
These abandoned vehicles included 4 Tiger II, 8 Panther G, 3 PzKpfw IVH and 1 Puma armoured scout vehicle.
All of the Tiger II tanks and one Panther G were taken over by the Soviet’ taskforce, with the rest of the Panther G tanks being stripped of spare parts, ammunition etc. before being turned over to the Soviet’ high command together with the rest of the captured equipment.
The Soviet’ losses included 7 IS-II together with 5 crews, 1 T-5g with crew, 1 ISU-122, 2 SU-85M with crews and 1 AT gun with crew.
Claims:
The heavy tank battalion as a whole claimed 45 tanks destroyed. The tank destroyer battery claimed 36 tanks and 2 APC destroyed. The tank destroyer platoon claimed 4 tanks destroyed. The AT battery claimed 1 tank, 3 APC’s and 2 trucks destroyed. The heavy machineguns claimed 5 trucks destroyed. The artillery claimed 2 tanks, 2 APC’s and 1 artillery destroyed. Finally the infantry claimed 27 tanks destroyed in close combat actions.
Of the heavy tank battalion’s total 45 claims, 34 were made by the IS-II tanks and 11 by the T-5g tanks.
The commander of the tank destroyer battery, Kaptain Rogov, became the battle hero during this defensive action when he and his crew managed to destroy two Tiger II tanks in less than 30 seconds. His crew is also one of the few crews to have been a part of the taskforce from the very beginning.
Battle result:
Since the Soviet taskforce managed to hold the lines, stop the small breach made by the Germans and caused so much damage among the German’ lines, the battle ended in a decisive victory.
Replacing losses:
The battle outcome meant that the entire taskforce could have its losses completely replaced. The only exception were the two armoured AOP vehicles, where the question remains what to replace them with.
The heavy tank battalion got their remaining 4 T-5g tanks replaced with the captured Tiger II tanks, renamed T-7 to avoid any confusion with the T-6 - captured Tiger I tanks. This since these crews already were accustom to using captured German’ tanks.
The old T-5g tanks, along with one of the captured Panther G, were given to the tank destroyer platoon, thus transforming it into a medium tank platoon, since the T-5g tanks so far have had a proven combat record within the Soviet’ taskforce.
The tank destroyer battery finally reached full strength with 11 SU-85M in service. The final step will be to equip this unit with the new SU-100 tank destroyers when they finally start being delivered to the combat units.
The anti-aircraft platoon got their old AA trucks replaced with lend-and-lease ZSU-M15 halftracks from the USA. These vehicles have armour plating, which makes them less vulnerable against small arms fire and increases the overall chances of survival on the battlefield.
The infantry also saw some changes with 8 of the Bazooka teams being replaced by snipers, one within each infantry company.
New basic force:
Basic force:
-Soviet HQ + T-5g APC (8 men)
-Heavy Tank Battalion (28 IS-II & 4 T-7 - 132 men)
-Tank Destroyer Battery (11 SU-85M - 44 men)
-Medium Tank Platoon (5 T-5g - 25 men)
-Artillery Regiment (8 122 mm - 288 men)
-Anti-Aircraft Platoon (4 ZSU-M15 - 16 men)
-Anti-Tank Battery (6 57 mm L73 - 30 men)
-Infantry (8 infantry & 1 MG Companies, 8 snipers and 8 Bazooka - 1.152 men)
Battle Six:
Hungry, November 1944 - Defend
Support forces:
-Fortification works: Minefields, barbed wire, dragon’s teeth & trenches